


loud shouting, followed by... (Prompt 22 - Argy-Bargy)

by unmended



Series: FFXIVWrite2020 [22]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Gender-Neutral Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Other, Touching, Touchy-Feely
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:48:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26611699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unmended/pseuds/unmended
Summary: Emet-Selch offers succor to the Warrior of Darkness but it comes with a... twist.
Relationships: Solus zos Galvus | Emet-Selch/Warrior of Light
Series: FFXIVWrite2020 [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1906036
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10
Collections: Emet-Selch's Wholesomely Debauched Bookclub FFXIV-Writes 2020 Collection





	loud shouting, followed by... (Prompt 22 - Argy-Bargy)

**Author's Note:**

> So, this got away from me a bit. While it is all non-sexual touching and nothing explicit at all, there is some stuff that could read as dubious consent due to state of mind so take care if that's a concern for you.  
> Otherwise, this is just a strange fic about some soul healing magicks. wahoo~

* * *

The Warrior of Darkness stares out their small balcony in the Pendants and tries to relax.

The night is cool and blissfully quiet but something itches and burns under their skin and it makes it hard to think. To eat or sleep. And they need both if they're to be ready for anything to come. They sag against the wrought iron railing.

At the fizzle of aether behind them, they turn expecting a friend and almost have their mouth around the name 'Ardbert' when they are faced with one of the primary sources of an enormous amount of their ire: Emet-Selch.

"What are you - get out. _Get out of my room_." The Warrior says, their mind quickly catching up with the situation, pushing off from the railing with much more energy than they had even moments earlier. "If you think you can just…stroll into my personal chambers whenever you please you'd be sorely mistaken." They say bitterly and with entirely more conviction than they feel.

Emet-Selch whirls lazily around the room, unperturbed.

"So this is how the vaunted Warrior of Darkness spends their downtime, hmm?"

"I spend my downtime alone, _resting._ " They insist, voice rising. " **Get out**."

Emet-Selch's grin widens imperceptibly.

"Now, that doesn't seem very hospitable to me, does it…" He drawls, walking further away from The Warrior. Emet-Selch skirts the edge of the large wooden table. "I only came here to offer assistance." He locks eyes with the Warrior.

"Absolutely not." They say. "Now **Get. Out.** " They shout each word. Their head whips around looking for their weapon. Failing that, they look to the exit.

The Warrior strides purposefully towards the door to their room and yanks it open by the handle, gesturing emphatically. Emet-Selch takes his time strolling over to them across the marble floor, the sound of his shoes clacking against the floor providing the only sound.  
  
Within an arms length, the Ascian grasps the hard wood of the door and quickly slams it shut, with the Warrior's hand still gripped to it, caught. A hollow thunk echoing out in the large room as they fall into it, and Emet-Selch pressing in to tower over them. Caging them against the door.

"Doesn't it hurt-" He hisses into their ear, grabbing at their ribs and pressing in with a thumb. The light inside them, barely contained as it is, rails against their mortal body and rises like bile. The Warrior sucks in a deep breath and shuts their eyes against the sudden press of pain. Insistent and consuming. Their legs buckle despite themselves and they grip the door handle tighter, slamming their other hand into the door. A shout tears out from their throat, tapering off into a pained groan.

  
  
"How cruel of your friends to leave you to manage this on your own, hero..." He whispers, gentler this time, gloved hand drifting over the sore spot and a cool sensation passes over them instead.

"What are you-" They rasp, pained.

"Will you consent to my presence here. To letting me assist you relieve the pain?"

  
  
" _...Why?_ " They say, eyes firmly closed . Emet-Selch's eyebrows raise and he stops for a moment to consider the question.

"Because I-" He pauses. Because he desires this little game to continue? Right until the end? Because they might just be more than a disappointment after all. Because....

"Because I bore easily, hero." He says, plainly.

The Warrior or Darkness makes another pained noise, held up primarily by the door handle and the Ascian's own arm.

"What bargain is it, then?" They breathe.

"No bargain, just let me work." Emet-Selch replies.

* * *

He bears The Warrior's weight in a half-drag to their own bed and sets them down on it, sitting. Unsteady, they wrap their arms around their middle and practically fold over.

Emet-Selch catches their shoulder and they shudder, trying to move away from his touch - any touch - with a pained sound.

"What are you going to do to me?" They ask, tentatively.

"Nothing your fractured mind would understand, now quiet." He chides as he begins to fold in some of his own soul's aether to mend the cracks he can see in the Warrior's tainted blue soul. Nothing permanent, mind, but something to take the edge off the degenerating pain, at least for a little while. Or until they suffuse themselves with more Light.

Sentimental fool that he is.

The Warrior sighs in relief almost the moment he begins and Emet-Selch has to catch them with one arm as they fall forward and to the side, forgetting themselves. It takes a few minutes but the Warrior practically stretches out in his arms in the absence of the pain, face tilting up and eyes closed.

Finishing what mending he had set out to do, he taps at their chin with a gloved finger.

  
  
"Now, now, what would your little Scion friends think about this, hmm?" He lilts.

The Warrior of Darkness doesn't move for a few beats, then their eyes snap open and they wiggle out of his hold, tossing themselves bodily across the bed hitting and the wall with thud that likely was heard in the rooms beyond.

  
  
"What did you - why did that feel _so._.." They say, face flushing with colour.

"Good?" Emet-Selch finishes for them. "I'm in the business of keeping some of my own council and I think I'll keep that one to myself." He smirks.

  
  
"Do you have answers for what is happening to me? The Light?" They ask, angrily.

  
  
"Yes."

"Are you going to _tell me_?"

"...No."

The Warrior growls in frustration, slamming their hands against the wall and pushing themselves forward to put their feet on the floor and rise.

"I'd recommend against that." Emet-Selch murmurs as he grasps their shoulder and presses. The touch alone sends a frisson of _good_ and _dizzy_ spinning through their body at the same time, disorienting them. They gasp and send an accusatory glance in his direction.

Emet-Selch shrugs.

The Warrior sighs and falls back against their bedspread. Another bolt of something that is quickly becoming much more _pleasure_ and less _dizzy_ pierces through them _._

"Ha...h...Help me." They breathe.

  
  
"I would not...take you in this state, enemy or no...." He says, standing over them as they let out another puff of breath.

"Then just... Stay. I don't care. Please." They say.

  
  
Emet-Selch hesitates, just for a moment, then shuffles them over to sit delicately on the side of the bed. A hand reaches for them immediately but he plucks it away. "Ah, mind the fabrics." He chides.  
The Warrior scoffs in response.

The two rearrange so that the Warrior is facing the wall, and Emet-Selch is curled around them at their back, a respectful distance apart.  
  


"You should get your rest, hero-" Emet-Selch murmurs.

"It feels like my nerves are on _fire_..." They say, pressing back into the Ascian. Emet-Selch grips their hip to keep them from grinding back further. "Gods above, this is..." They throw their head back against his chest and just tremble.  
  
Emet-Selch shuts his eyes and takes a deep breath in, their sweat and aether triggering a specific nostalgia he can't name. In a moment of weakness he lets his arm wrap around them to their front, fingers lifting to trace along their collar. His lips drop and Emet-Selch lays a reverent kiss atop their head. He strokes along their collar to the column of their neck, touch feather light, until it reaches the edge of their jawline. The hand at their hip smooths up just slightly to skim their flank...

The Warrior of Darkness is undone by a soul-deep ardor they don't recognize and they keen, grasping the hand at their side insistent in their separation. Breathing deeply in a strange afterglow, all tension having left their body, The Warrior is pliant and Emet-Selch detangles himself from them and turns to rise.

  
  
"...Was this - was this some sort of fae dream?" They ask, half turning before their eyes flutter closed.

"If that is what you'd prefer, hero." Emet-Selch says, smiling wistfully and pulling up the bedding around them.

  
  
He watches them briefly until they pass into sleep, and then he shakes himself out of whatever sentimentality he had trapped himself in and conjures a portal to quit their rooms.  


* * *

They wake boneless and thoroughly rested, blinking through sleep to greet the morning light.

The Warrior turns over the evening's events in their head as they rise and wash and eat, and... Tucking the memory away.

They make their way out of their room and to the common area of The Pendants and slow when they overhear a particular part of a boisterous conversation nearby to the Master of Suites.

"D'ja hear all that argy-bargy last night? Hardly got a wink of sleep I did - could have sworn someone was wrestling against the walls, thumping an' shouting!"  
  
The Warrior of Darkness manages to turn away in time to hide the positively scarlet flush that overtakes their entire face and ears, stifling a faked cough behind a gauntlet as they quickly vacate the premises, exiting out into the Crystarium's Markets to meet their companions.

Trying to forget the kindness that was done for them, with seemingly nothing expected in return.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> I'm looking at this as basically just a crack fic. No idea what i was doing, just wanted to see if I could get something riled up and kind of sexy without being explicit at all.  
> thanks for reading ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
> 
> If you're of the writing persuasion or generally just want to yell about final fantasy xiv, come and join usssss in the discorrrrrd:
> 
> [Emet-Selch's Wholesomely Debauched and Enabling Book Club](https://discord.gg/4gUTQta)


End file.
